Melbourne’s lockdown extended by another week

As predicted, the Victorian government has extended the current lockdown across Melbourne for another seven days due to the current level of community COVID-19 transmission.

The state was due to come out of lockdown tomorrow, but Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton announced earlier today that the current restrictions in metropolitan Melbourne will remain in place until at least 11:59pm (AEST) on Thursday 19 August in the hope of stamping out the Delta variant.

Victoria currently has 116 active locally acquired COVID cases, nearly 300 exposure sites and more than 12,000 active primary close contacts around Greater Melbourne.

“The Delta variant is more infectious and moving so quickly that we cannot take the risk of opening up too soon,” Sutton said.

“This extension of the current restrictions will help us catch and contain it.”

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews said: “With more than 100 active cases in our community and more than 12,000 primary close contacts, we cannot afford to open up and let this variant run free – we need to get in front of this, just like we have done before.”

The decision comes after stay-at-home orders were lifted for regional Victorians on Monday.

Featured image source: iStock/Christie Cooper